Scarlet 315 



hounds, and when Mr. Bethell had in vain remonstra- 

 ted with him, and saw him coolly turn his cap wrong 

 side first as a preliminary, he turned his back not to 

 see him killed. However he got safely over, and at 

 last died in his bed at Sandbeck, where he hunted 

 Lord Scarbro's hounds. In later life, he was not the 

 man (as they say in Yorkshire), " to burst himself with 

 tooth watter'' ; and six or seven horns of ale in a morn- 

 ing before cub-hunting, for a few seasons, soon 

 quenched the fire within him. Old Will Smith once 

 slipped across the Trent, when the hounds were at 

 Manby, to meet him, one blazing hot August morning, 

 at Grove. He could neither hear nor see anything of 

 the hounds, but he espied some one in scarlet at a 

 wicket-gate, and tore up the ride to enquire. The 

 horse was quietly grazing ; and the rider, who proved 

 to be Robinson, was fast asleep. '^Halloo I old boy!' 

 said Will, in his fine cheery tones. " where are your 

 hounds r '' Hounds r said Jack. '' All right ! how 

 should I know ? they were here half an hour since — thafs 

 you, Will, is it ? All right I old fellow — / was just a 

 bit drowsy!' And so after one or two more thunder- 

 ing claps from Will, to make sure it was " All right," 

 the two huntsmen separated, and Will cantered home 

 again, " more ashamed than I ever was in my life!' 



But we are forgetting Mr. Hodgson Recollections of 

 and his Will. They hunted four days a ^r. Hodgson. 

 week with only thirty-six couple of hounds, and killed 

 thirty-seven brace of foxes ; and towards the close of 

 another, they hunted nineteen days, and added twenty 

 noses after splendid runs to their stable array. They 

 killed them everywhere, and not content with the 

 intrusion into Sim Templeman's bed-room, they broke 

 up another in the drawing-room at Sir Clifford Con- 

 stable's. In short, the housemaids of the East-Riding 

 never knew where they had them. On one occasion,. 

 Will was seen up to his waist, wading for his fox in 

 *he German Ocean, beneath the crags of Skeleton 



